Winners still to be decided in Clarkston

When the majority of candidates on the ballot are write-in candidates, it takes time to determine who wins a race. That is the case for two races in Clarkston.

Incumbent Mayor Sue Wylie, incumbent council members Peg Roth and Mark David Lamphier and new candidates Lily McLean, Al Avery, Erica Jones and Lisa Patercsak all filed to run for mayor and city council seats, but only Jones remained on the ballot after the others were removed for various reasons.

When voters arrived at the voting precinct on Tuesday they had the choice of Wylie and city council member Ted Quisenberry for mayor and Jones, Avery, Forte and Lamphere for the three available council seats.

Those candidates all filed with the county prior to Oct. 25 and were eligible to be written onto ballots and counted as official write-in candidates.

Unofficial results from the Oakland County Clerk's office show 364 people voted in the race for mayor and 700 for council candidates.

In the city council race, Jones has 256 votes and write-in candidates have 444 votes.

All write-in candidates are currently designated as "unassigned write-in" until the Oakland County Board of Canvassers goes through all the ballots cast and designates votes to a specific candidate. The process of verifying write-in candidates began at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 6.

According to the clerk's office, the process could take up to two weeks. Names written on the ballot must match the spelling of the candidate, although there is some latitude when it comes to using initials for first names and using names like Jim instead of James.

The reasons candidates were left off the ballot include not checking boxes on filing method or which election the candidate was running in, failing to fill out the jurisdiction they were running in, or the seat they were running for.